I know it at least as well as most. But those are "unforeseen circumstances", as far as I'm concerned. Accidents, diseases, and violence are, or at least should be, exceptions to the rule. They didn't used to be, but today they can be.

For myself, regardless of how long I live, I hope my death is a tragedy, rather than being a relief after a long experience of a living tragedy. The best way to ensure that is to keep living well, if that's at all possible, up until the last minute. And that will require active and continuous intervention.

LOL! I KNEW that out of all I wrote, this one sentence would be the only one that stuck! Well, I take the good with the bad. I can't do it twice within 60 minutes, but, if I'm enjoying myself and have the time, I can now do it for the better part of 60 minutes!

I like some of Rippetoe's philosophy, but the cranky old man routine combined with his utter disdain for any training method that differs from his own, gets a little old.

Agreed. He's good for Starting Strength as I believe the big 3 are the best start for any lifter (vs the traditional abs & biceps) but his writing gets old pretty quick. I still think his writing on the mechanics and leverage involved in the big 3 are very valuable, and I agree with his philosophy on strength.

"Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be
or not. As humanity has developed throughout history, physical strength has become less critical
to our daily existence, but no less important to our lives. Our strength, more than any other thing
we possess, still determines the quality and the quantity of our time here in these bodies. Whereas
previously our physical strength determined how much food we ate and how warm and dry we
stayed, it now merely determines how well we function in these new surroundings we have crafted
for ourselves as our culture has accumulated. But we are still animals - our physical existence is, in
the final analysis, the only one that actually matters. A weak man is not as happy as that same man
would be if he were strong. This reality is offensive to some people who would like the intellectual
or spiritual to take precedence. It is instructive to see what happens to these very people as their
squat strength goes up."

Originally Posted by Bando

Neat how your one word reply on an anonymous internet message board so eloquently captures the driving factor behind a strength coach who has written 2 books that have been published for 3 editions each.

Whatever dude... but the bolded above no matter how good a coach he is, is well, WRONG!

"Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be
or not. As humanity has developed throughout history, physical strength has become less critical
to our daily existence, but no less important to our lives. Our strength, more than any other thing
we possess, still determines the quality and the quantity of our time here in these bodies. Whereas
previously our physical strength determined how much food we ate and how warm and dry we
stayed, it now merely determines how well we function in these new surroundings we have crafted
for ourselves as our culture has accumulated. But we are still animals - our physical existence is, in
the final analysis, the only one that actually matters. A weak man is not as happy as that same man
would be if he were strong. This reality is offensive to some people who would like the intellectual
or spiritual to take precedence. It is instructive to see what happens to these very people as their
squat strength goes up."

Originally Posted by Old-Time-Lifter

Whatever dude... but the bolded above no matter how good a coach he is, is well, WRONG!

Good luck with your goals in 2018.

Guess he was right

☻/
/▌ Dm2dm crew (---Deadlift Moar to Deadlift Moar---)
/ \ 

"Squat and pull and quit listening to the static." Jim Wendler
Natty ☠ 101- lift heavy things consistently over time as often as you can recover from. ด้้้้้็็็็็้้้้้็็็็ส็็็็็็็็็็็็

I could've lied, but I'm not an e-stat kinda guy. I did say I can fk for nearly an hour these days tho.

On another thread related topic, I'm sure you've seen the white oval stickers on cars that have marathon run kilometers in them? I hate those, primarily because of what I perceive as people thinking running is a legit, professionals type of training while weightlifting is for mouthbreathers of a lower status. Anyways, one day I'm gonna get me a white oval with my max lift from a given movement in there, ie: max squat; max bench, and max dead (although my max dead wasn't white square worthy, to be honest)

Will be 56 in a couple of weeks. Still train for strength and still manage to press 100lb dumbbells and more at times. Will do as long as my body allows although some days seems tougher. But figure if I keep my strength up, physically I still get tons of complements in and out of the gym. Just figure I will stay the course so I can continue enjoying life more than my other friends my age that are crippled up from lack of physical activity. I do have friends (few) that don't lift but they at least are conscious of eating and stay healthy and can do what they enjoy in life. Overweight kills the sex drive big time. Hear it all the time. Still waiting on mine to drop.....lol. Stay healthy and happy!

Double T Sponsored Athlete!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.

I dont understand the point of being overly strong, we have lots of lifting aids in this day and age, why is being very strong an advantage in everyday life?

The point is in the training itself. Say for example some guy is doing his tut curls and stretchy band thing in the squat rack. The physically strong person could simply overpower the guy, picking him and his little weights up and hurl him across the gym. The overpowered person would be left bruised, battered, and too humiliated to finish his workout and losing gainz, while the "overly strong guy" would proceed to do heavy squats and build his his strength and mass. It's a scenario that plays out everyday in nature. .

Actually being somewhat strong is beneficial to me in life. I do lot of outdoor activities. It's nice to be able to pick up and move heavy things like logs blocking trails, dead animals (aka protein) and dragging boats out of the water etc. I don't need to McGuiver a mechanical aid so it's more efficient use of my recreational time.

I could've lied, but I'm not an e-stat kinda guy. I did say I can fk for nearly an hour these days tho.

On another thread related topic, I'm sure you've seen the white oval stickers on cars that have marathon run kilometers in them? I hate those, primarily because of what I perceive as people thinking running is a legit, professionals type of training while weightlifting is for mouthbreathers of a lower status. Anyways, one day I'm gonna get me a white oval with my max lift from a given movement in there, ie: max squat; max bench, and max dead (although my max dead wasn't white square worthy, to be honest)

"I hate those, primarily because of what I perceive as people thinking running is a legit, professionals type of training while weightlifting is for mouthbreathers of a lower status."

"what I perceive "

FYI real athletes can do both, run 13.1 and lift decent weights when not in training for running/racing mode. Those ovals( i don't have one) are for self pride like your Trump sticker on your truck.

The easiest way to tell when an argument has no merit is when the protagonist mixes in some personal insults

Forums should be about having a bit of fun along the way, if its just going to be about bodybuilding and weightlifting its going to get pretty boring pretty fast.

Agreed. This is the Misc section after all. I don't think there is a discussion about weight training that I haven't had in the past 30+ years. I find them to boil own to boring retreads about ego and who's 'better' or who is the most dedicated or who works out the hardest, blah, blah, blah.

“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general.” - Mark Rippetoe

As with many competitive sports,in PL there are age/weight classes. Being the strongest version of yourself at any given age and living in the moment is the key for me. Going to comps getting to know lifters who are hitting PRs their clasess and breaking records in their 60s and 70s gives me a lot of inspiration and optimism about the future and motivates me to keep training hard but with good form and allowing a lot of time for recovery. In PL, the records are published and that sets the bar or a target to shoot for. Either you lift it, or you can't. Simple but not easy. The process of creating a plan, then working it and breaking a plateau in a concrete and measurable way is extremely satisfying. The best workout is the one you consistently do. So whatever works. If aesthetics motivate you more than strength, then feed your motivation.

Knowing myself, a focus on aesthetics, I could see leading me to a state of continued and growing dissatisfaction with image versus a focus on strength as the foundation of overall healthy living and pursuing outdoor sports and learning new ones (snowboarding 40s, surfing 50s). It's simplistic but my focus is on what I can actually do/achieve, rather than how I look in the mirror, or looking like I lift. I'm sure you have seen the infographics showing the wide range of body types in "athletes." There is no one "look" per se. I amazed also at the return on investment. By that I mean 4 hours a week of consistent training over time has yielded results I never imagined when I started.

The relationship about between how we "looK" and how we "feel" about ourselves is an interesting one. I have become happier becoming less concerned about my "look." But for others it will be the opposite. There are continual transformation challenges on here and the "before" and "after" pics are inspiring. Looking and feeling better are connected. On some level I think we are happiest setting, pursuing and achieving goals. It's about progress and adopting a "growth mindset" on some level. It's up to you to define exactly what "growth" means to you. It's not a constant either. As we age, the variables and what we consider "progress" evolves as we do.

It's not that there aren't spillover aesthetic improvements. As a 50+ year-old, when I was on my solo surf trip to CR trip, the place was thick with lean shredded surfers. At the surf camp I stayed at, on my last night when I mentioned my age one of the women wouldn't believe it. I had to show her ID. After the surf camp ended I switched to a new place and was pleasantly shocked to find myself closing my hotel bar and an after hours place with a gorgeous beauty 15 years my junior.

As you know the gyms are packed right now so I had to work in with a young guy the other day (I train at a University gym). He was a black kid, varsity soccer player. His physique was perfect, shredded, probably 8% bodyfat. But he was benching 1 plate. I worked up to my working sets of 255 and he looks a bit stunned and asks me "How did you become so strong." Variations of this comment arise pretty regularly.

I quoted Rip above because last spring I dug up about 400 square feet of sod, built two container gardens, had more than 4 tons of base gravel and pea gravel dumped on my driveway. I don't know how may wheel barrows of sod/base rock/pea gravel I moved, but I did it on my own. Late summer I was dining al fresco and enjoying a fresh tomato basil pasta dinner. Nothing like eating produce you have grown from a garden you built from scratch - very satisfying. When furniture and appliances need to be moved, I move them, I don't call someone.

I was already an "old" feeling sedentary f*ck at 45, suffering insomnia, acid reflux et and I asked myself what did I want my life to feel like at 50. Now I'm living it. Periodized heavy strength strength training has been the key that made everything else possible. It made me learn the deadlift. It made me thing about balance between posterior and anterior muscle groups. That led to thinking about balance in other respects. That got me thinking about my nutrition, sleep, functional mobility etc. Tracking success and progress built confidence which then got me asking the other questions. If you want to snowboard, then do it. You want to surf, then do it.

“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general.” - Mark Rippetoe

As with many competitive sports,in PL there are age/weight classes. Being the strongest version of yourself at any given age and living in the moment is the key for me. Going to comps getting to know lifters who are hitting PRs their clasess and breaking records in their 60s and 70s gives me a lot of inspiration and optimism about the future and motivates me to keep training hard but with good form and allowing a lot of time for recovery. In PL, the records are published and that sets the bar or a target to shoot for. Either you lift it, or you can't. Simple but not easy. The process of creating a plan, then working it and breaking a plateau in a concrete and measurable way is extremely satisfying. The best workout is the one you consistently do. So whatever works. If aesthetics motivate you more than strength, then feed your motivation.

Knowing myself, a focus on aesthetics, I could see leading me to a state of continued and growing dissatisfaction with image versus a focus on strength as the foundation of overall healthy living and pursuing outdoor sports and learning new ones (snowboarding 40s, surfing 50s). It's simplistic but my focus is on what I can actually do/achieve, rather than how I look in the mirror, or looking like I lift. I'm sure you have seen the infographics showing the wide range of body types in "athletes." There is no one "look" per se. I amazed also at the return on investment. By that I mean 4 hours a week of consistent training over time has yielded results I never imagined when I started.

The relationship about between how we "looK" and how we "feel" about ourselves is an interesting one. I have become happier becoming less concerned about my "look." But for others it will be the opposite. There are continual transformation challenges on here and the "before" and "after" pics are inspiring. Looking and feeling better are connected. On some level I think we are happiest setting, pursuing and achieving goals. It's about progress and adopting a "growth mindset" on some level. It's up to you to define exactly what "growth" means to you. It's not a constant either. As we age, the variables and what we consider "progress" evolves as we do.

It's not that there aren't spillover aesthetic improvements. As a 50+ year-old, when I was on my solo surf trip to CR trip, the place was thick with lean shredded surfers. At the surf camp I stayed at, on my last night when I mentioned my age one of the women wouldn't believe it. I had to show her ID. After the surf camp ended I switched to a new place and was pleasantly shocked to find myself closing my hotel bar and an after hours place with a gorgeous beauty 15 years my junior.

As you know the gyms are packed right now so I had to work in with a young guy the other day (I train at a University gym). He was a black kid, varsity soccer player. His physique was perfect, shredded, probably 8% bodyfat. But he was benching 1 plate. I worked up to my working sets of 255 and he looks a bit stunned and asks me "How did you become so strong." Variations of this comment arise pretty regularly.

I quoted Rip above because last spring I dug up about 400 square feet of sod, built two container gardens, had more than 4 tons of base gravel and pea gravel dumped on my driveway. I don't know how may wheel barrows of sod/base rock/pea gravel I moved, but I did it on my own. Late summer I was dining al fresco and enjoying a fresh tomato basil pasta dinner. Nothing like eating produce you have grown from a garden you built from scratch - very satisfying. When furniture and appliances need to be moved, I move them, I don't call someone.

I was already an "old" feeling sedentary f*ck at 45, suffering insomnia, acid reflux et and I asked myself what did I want my life to feel like at 50. Now I'm living it. Periodized heavy strength strength training has been the key that made everything else possible. It made me learn the deadlift. It made me thing about balance between posterior and anterior muscle groups. That led to thinking about balance in other respects. That got me thinking about my nutrition, sleep, functional mobility etc. Tracking success and progress built confidence which then got me asking the other questions. If you want to snowboard, then do it. You want to surf, then do it.

“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general.” - Mark Rippetoe

As with many competitive sports,in PL there are age/weight classes. Being the strongest version of yourself at any given age and living in the moment is the key for me. Going to comps getting to know lifters who are hitting PRs their clasess and breaking records in their 60s and 70s gives me a lot of inspiration and optimism about the future and motivates me to keep training hard but with good form and allowing a lot of time for recovery. In PL, the records are published and that sets the bar or a target to shoot for. Either you lift it, or you can't. Simple but not easy. The process of creating a plan, then working it and breaking a plateau in a concrete and measurable way is extremely satisfying. The best workout is the one you consistently do. So whatever works. If aesthetics motivate you more than strength, then feed your motivation.

Knowing myself, a focus on aesthetics, I could see leading me to a state of continued and growing dissatisfaction with image versus a focus on strength as the foundation of overall healthy living and pursuing outdoor sports and learning new ones (snowboarding 40s, surfing 50s). It's simplistic but my focus is on what I can actually do/achieve, rather than how I look in the mirror, or looking like I lift. I'm sure you have seen the infographics showing the wide range of body types in "athletes." There is no one "look" per se. I amazed also at the return on investment. By that I mean 4 hours a week of consistent training over time has yielded results I never imagined when I started.

The relationship about between how we "looK" and how we "feel" about ourselves is an interesting one. I have become happier becoming less concerned about my "look." But for others it will be the opposite. There are continual transformation challenges on here and the "before" and "after" pics are inspiring. Looking and feeling better are connected. On some level I think we are happiest setting, pursuing and achieving goals. It's about progress and adopting a "growth mindset" on some level. It's up to you to define exactly what "growth" means to you. It's not a constant either. As we age, the variables and what we consider "progress" evolves as we do.

It's not that there aren't spillover aesthetic improvements. As a 50+ year-old, when I was on my solo surf trip to CR trip, the place was thick with lean shredded surfers. At the surf camp I stayed at, on my last night when I mentioned my age one of the women wouldn't believe it. I had to show her ID. After the surf camp ended I switched to a new place and was pleasantly shocked to find myself closing my hotel bar and an after hours place with a gorgeous beauty 15 years my junior.

As you know the gyms are packed right now so I had to work in with a young guy the other day (I train at a University gym). He was a black kid, varsity soccer player. His physique was perfect, shredded, probably 8% bodyfat. But he was benching 1 plate. I worked up to my working sets of 255 and he looks a bit stunned and asks me "How did you become so strong." Variations of this comment arise pretty regularly.

I quoted Rip above because last spring I dug up about 400 square feet of sod, built two container gardens, had more than 4 tons of base gravel and pea gravel dumped on my driveway. I don't know how may wheel barrows of sod/base rock/pea gravel I moved, but I did it on my own. Late summer I was dining al fresco and enjoying a fresh tomato basil pasta dinner. Nothing like eating produce you have grown from a garden you built from scratch - very satisfying. When furniture and appliances need to be moved, I move them, I don't call someone.

I was already an "old" feeling sedentary f*ck at 45, suffering insomnia, acid reflux et and I asked myself what did I want my life to feel like at 50. Now I'm living it. Periodized heavy strength strength training has been the key that made everything else possible. It made me learn the deadlift. It made me thing about balance between posterior and anterior muscle groups. That led to thinking about balance in other respects. That got me thinking about my nutrition, sleep, functional mobility etc. Tracking success and progress built confidence which then got me asking the other questions. If you want to snowboard, then do it. You want to surf, then do it.

Nice post, Good work! I like most of what Rip says, have his SS book, he is pretty sensible..despite the odd quotes once in awhile...Repped

“it's easy to stand in the crowd but it takes courage to stand alone” Ghandi and probably anyone who lifts weights at home

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